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Yemen crisis: 85,000 children ‘dead from malnutrition’http://ciiradio.com/2018/11/21/yemen-crisis-85000-children-dead-from-malnutrition/
http://ciiradio.com/2018/11/21/yemen-crisis-85000-children-dead-from-malnutrition/#respondWed, 21 Nov 2018 12:47:23 +0000http://ciiradio.com/?p=1623921 November 2018| 13 Rabi ul Awwal 1440| An estimated 85,000 children under the age of five may have died from acute malnutrition in three years of war in Yemen, a leading charity says. The number is equivalent to the entire under-five population in the UK’s second largest city of Birmingham, Save the Children adds. […]

An estimated 85,000 children under the age of five may have died from acute malnutrition in three years of war in Yemen, a leading charity says.

The number is equivalent to the entire under-five population in the UK’s second largest city of Birmingham, Save the Children adds.

It is trying to revive talks to end a three-year war which has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.Yemen has been devastated by the conflict. Fighting escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign against the Houthi rebel movement which had forced President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee abroad.

At least 6,800 civilians have been killed and 10,700 injured in the war, according to the UN. The fighting and a partial blockade by the coalition have also left 22 million people in need of humanitarian aid, created the world’s largest food security emergency, and led to a cholera outbreak that has affected 1.2 million people.

CURRENT DEATH TOLL

It is difficult to get an exact number of deaths. Aid workers in Yemen say many go unreported because only half of the country’s health facilities are functioning and many people are too poor to access the ones that remain open.

Save the Children says it based its figures on mortality rates for untreated cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition in children under five from data compiled by the UN. According to conservative estimates, it calculated that around 84,700 children may have died between April 2015 and October 2018.

Rising food prices and the falling value of the country’s currency as a result of a civil war are putting more families at risk of food insecurity.

The UK-based charity blames the blockade for putting more people at risk of famine, with continued heavy fighting around the principal lifeline port of Hudaydah further exacerbating the situation.

The rebel-held port, through which the country has traditionally imported 90% of its food, has seen commercial imports fall by more than 55,000 metric tonnes a month, the charity says. This is enough to meet the needs of 4.4m people, including 2.2m children, it adds.

MALNOURISHED CHILDREN

The charity says that based on historical studies, if acute malnutrition is left untreated, around 20-30% of children will die each year.

“For every child killed by bombs and bullets, dozens are starving to death and it’s entirely preventable,” its Yemen director, Tamer Kirolos, says.

“Children who die in this way suffer immensely as their vital organ functions slow down and eventually stop. Their immune systems are so weak they are more prone to infections with some too frail to even cry.

“Parents have to witness their children wasting away, unable to do anything about it.”

He further warned that an estimated 150,000 children’s lives were endangered in Hudaydah with “a dramatic increase” in air strikes over the city in recent weeks.

THREAT OF FAMINEJust last month, the UN warned that half the population of the war-torn country was facing “pre-famine conditions”.

A country has to meet the following criteria to be declared in famine: At least one in five households faces an extreme lack of food More than 30% of children under five are suffering from acute malnutrition At least two people out of every 10,000 are dying every day

The UN said – based on assessments from a year ago – the first two thresholds had either been exceeded or was dangerously close in 107 of Yemen’s 333 districts. But the third threshold about numbers of deaths was more difficult to confirm. The organisation is currently repeating the assessments.

]]>http://ciiradio.com/2018/11/21/yemen-crisis-85000-children-dead-from-malnutrition/feed/0‘We are on life support’: doctor makes desperate plea from yemeni city of hodeidah as humanitarian crisis worsenshttp://ciiradio.com/2018/11/16/we-are-on-life-support-doctor-makes-desperate-plea-from-yemeni-city-of-hodeidah-as-humanitarian-crisis-worsens/
http://ciiradio.com/2018/11/16/we-are-on-life-support-doctor-makes-desperate-plea-from-yemeni-city-of-hodeidah-as-humanitarian-crisis-worsens/#respondFri, 16 Nov 2018 12:03:41 +0000http://ciiradio.com/?p=1613316 November 2018| 08 Rabi ul Awwal 1440| Independent “Get out of the car”, was the last thing Dr Ashwaq Moharram heard before the scream of a missile ended in a deafening crunch of metal on the concrete behind her. It was Saturday morning in Hodeidah, Yemen. She had just driven to work at al-Thawra […]

“Get out of the car”, was the last thing Dr Ashwaq Moharram heard before the scream of a missile ended in a deafening crunch of metal on the concrete behind her.

It was Saturday morning in Hodeidah, Yemen. She had just driven to work at al-Thawra hospital, one of the last remaining medical centres in the strategic Red Sea city that is now at the heart of the battle between a Saudi Arabia led coalition and Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

For several gruelling years Dr Moharram, a 42-year-old a gynaecologist by trade, has fought a one-woman battle to save some of Yemen’s 8.4 million people, who according to the United Nations, could starve to death if the country’s war rages on. She set up a mobile nutrition unit at the start of the conflict and toured the most battle-ravaged areas of north Yemen delivering food and supplements.

Nearly four years later the frontline, and famine, has finally come to her.

Speaking from her hometown, Dr Moharram described how shelling drew closer and a helicopter circled above firing missiles around the hospital building, located in the heart of the Houthi-controlled city.

“I heard an explosion and even louder screams yelling ‘Get out of the car, doctor, go back, go back, a strike’. The shelling was getting louder and my heart beat more and more in panic,” she told The Independent. “I looked in the car mirror and found that one of the missiles hit a building just behind me. This was not a one-off but rather a typical day of horror that we are living here.”

Until last week doctors at al-Thawra, like Moharram, were treating some 59 children.

Meritxell Relano, a representative for the United Nations’ child agency (Unicef) told The Independent all but 10, that are too sick to move, have been evacuated as the fighting has drawn close.

Hodeidah, currently home to some 300,000 people, has been one of the hardest hit by the hunger crisis, as food prices have shot up and supply lines ravaged in the conflict.

For the last five months the Gulf coalition and Yemen government troops it supports, have waged an intermittent campaign to seize the port from the Houthis.

Aid workers have warned that even if the fighting dies down, food prices are already soaring across the country, meaning a further five million could go hungry.

“Every time there is an escalation,that drives up speculation and worries about food and fuel. In Hodeidah, we’ve seen big spike in food prices,” Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children’s country director for Yemen, said. “Initially, we had 8.4 million who are severely food insecure and dependent on humanitarian aid. If prices continue to rise, we could see an additional 5 million people in need of food aid.”

The two sides have been fighting a disastrous war since the spring of 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a bombing campaign to reinstate their ally president Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi who was ousted by Houthis.

There is little hope of an end to the fighting, which has sparked the worst humanitarian crisis in the world in terms of numbers and killed over 57,000 people according to a recent estimate by the Associated Press news agency.

More than 22 million people, or two-thirds of the population, now rely on some sort of aid to survive. According to Save the Children’s Kirolos we could see as many as 13.4 million starve, which is nearly half Yemen’s population.

Despite three days of uneasy calm in Hodeidah prompting hopes of a truce, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition confirmed on Thursday military operations are going ahead.

The day before Yemen’s recognised President Hadi had promised to support UN-proposed peace talks due in Sweden by the end of the year. But he also vowed to “liberate” Hodeidah “whether through peace or war”.

In the heart of the city aid workers like Dr Moharram struggle to keep the civilian population alive, while caught in the crossfire.

She runs a weekly food and milk distribution programme in the centre of the city, for the most starving children under the age of eight but even that was being impacted.

She said she is now having to ration the milk she dishes out as basic supplies, including nutritional supplements, were running out.

Meanwhile, food prices were so high their parents are now eating rotten food to survive, she described.

“Children who are 8 years old look like they were just two. Children under three years are mere skeletons weighing 6kg at most. The worst thing is being forced to take milk away from a hungry baby, and then hearing them scream, it’s haunting,” she said. “The situation is not just getting worse day by day but hour by hour.”

Many rely on her programme as al-Thawra has mostly been evacuated, while May 22 hospital, a private centre near the edge of the city, has been destroyed.

Muhammad Abdi, country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council, said there are also issues with water supplies as fighters had dug ditches in the streets and severed the pipes.

“Many are trapped in their houses because they don’t have the means to leave the city,” he added

Fearing that food prices will keep rising and millions more will go hungry, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) announced it was preparing to scale up its food assistance to reach 12 million people from the current 8 million.

David Beasley, the WFP’s executive director, who recently returned from Hodeidah, issued a heartfelt plea to both sides to end the fighting.

“In the name of humanity, I urge all warring parties to put an end to this horrific war. Let the children live and let the people start to rebuild their lives,” he said.

But there is little hope of a speedy resolution to the crisis. Officials from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, US, and Britain met in Riyadh on Thursday to discuss the economic and humanitarian situation in Yemen.

While they agreed to support the UN’s efforts on economic confidence-building measures, little concrete was said about a ceasefire.

Sweden is reportedly preparing to host consultations when the parties “are ready to talk”. But as the week draws to a close, airstrikes are still pounding key areas around the city.

In the meantime, those living on the frontline are focused on just trying to survive.

“We are now basically on life support, eating whatever food was left, drinking the few drops remaining, and rationing medicine to avoid it running out,” she said.

“Yemenis are dying if not by bullets; by disease, poverty, and famine.”

]]>http://ciiradio.com/2018/11/16/we-are-on-life-support-doctor-makes-desperate-plea-from-yemeni-city-of-hodeidah-as-humanitarian-crisis-worsens/feed/0UN Warns: Yemen could face the ‘world’s worst famine in 100 years’ if fighting does not stophttp://ciiradio.com/2018/10/16/un-warns-yemen-could-face-the-worlds-worst-famine-in-100-years-if-fighting-does-not-stop/
http://ciiradio.com/2018/10/16/un-warns-yemen-could-face-the-worlds-worst-famine-in-100-years-if-fighting-does-not-stop/#respondTue, 16 Oct 2018 13:29:47 +0000http://ciiradio.com/?p=1538416 October 2018|06 Safar 1440|Independent Yemen could face the “worst famine in the world in 100 years” if fighting continues, the United Nations has warned, as The Independent learned an official declaration of famine would likely be announced in just a few weeks. Lise Grande, the UN’s coordinator for Yemen, said that as many as […]

Yemen could face the “worst famine in the world in 100 years” if fighting continues, the United Nations has warned, as The Independent learned an official declaration of famine would likely be announced in just a few weeks.

Lise Grande, the UN’s coordinator for Yemen, said that as many as 13 million civilians could die from starvation if a Saudi Arabia-led coalition does not halt its bombardment of the impoverished country.

More than 10,000 people have already been killed in the fighting and 3 million internally displaced since the Gulf alliance began bombing the country in 2015 to oust the Shia Houthi rebels.

“I think many of us felt as we went into the 21st century that it was unthinkable that we could see a famine like we saw in Ethiopia … Yet the reality is that in Yemen that is precisely what we are looking at,” Ms Grande told the BBC.

“We should be ashamed and we should, every day that we wake up, renew our commitment to do everything possible to help the people that are suffering and to end the conflict,” she added.

Ms Grande’s comments came as The Independent learned that in the coming weeks international bodies, including the UN, were likely to raise the integrated food security phase classification (IPC) to five, which means an official declaration of famine.

The IPC is a global scale, initially developed by the UN, to classify levels of hunger in order to trigger an international response.

At the moment Yemen is at level four, which means it is on the brink of famine.

The last country to be declared a level 5 was South Sudan last year.

Yemen has been ripped apart by war since the spring of 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition began bombing the country to reinstate its Sunni ally president Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi. Months previously Mr Hadi had been chased out of the country by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels that have repeatedly launched long-range missiles at Saudi Arabia.

The Gulf coalition has meanwhile enforced a land, sea and air blockade on the country, impacting food and fuel supplies.

Both sides of the conflict have been accused of contributing to the devastating humanitarian crisis which is currently the world’s largest. The UN estimate a staggering 22 million people, or three-quarters of the population, rely on aid to survive.

Aid workers on the ground said that conditions have deteriorated since the currency collapsed, seeing food prices double over the month.

In total, the charity Save the Children now estimates that 50,000 children under the age of five could die from malnutrition this year alone, which is an average of 130 a day.

Sylvia Ghaly, from Save the Children, said she saw women in Hodeidah too hungry to breastfeed and so were forced to resort to feeding their newborns water and sugar. Parents were regularly skipping meals.

“Children are half the size they should be for their age: a seven-year-old might look four. You can see their rib cages,” Ms Ghaly told The Independent from Sana’a.

“If it wasn’t for humanitarian aid, Yemen would have already collapsed into famine. But no amount of aid can support the growing number of people in need. This is a catastrophic, manmade humanitarian crisis, we need to put all our efforts to put a peaceful end to this conflict.”

Jan Egeland, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, agreed.

“Civilians in Yemen are not starving, they are being starved,” he said on Monday.

Civilians in Yemen are not starving, they are being starved
Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the NRC

“Let it be known that the worst famine on our watch is wholly manmade by Yemen’s local conflict parties and their international sponsors,” he said.

Amid fears of an impending famine are concerns there could be a renewed outbreak of related diseases, such as cholera, which is spreading almost unchecked as the battles rage on.

According to Save The Children, there has been a 170 per cent increase in suspected cholera cases since June, when the new Hodeidah offensive was launched.

They said malnutrition, displacement and air strikes on water supplies could spark a new wave of the disease nationwide.

]]>http://ciiradio.com/2018/10/16/un-warns-yemen-could-face-the-worlds-worst-famine-in-100-years-if-fighting-does-not-stop/feed/0One child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen, warns UNhttp://ciiradio.com/2018/09/26/one-child-dies-every-10-minutes-in-yemen-warns-un/
http://ciiradio.com/2018/09/26/one-child-dies-every-10-minutes-in-yemen-warns-un/#respondWed, 26 Sep 2018 18:22:27 +0000http://ciiradio.com/?p=1507826 September 2018|16 Muharram 1440|Middle East Monitor At least one child dies every ten minutes as a result of the conflict in Yemen, a senior UN official said. The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Lise Grande, warned at the end of a high-level meeting held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that […]

At least one child dies every ten minutes as a result of the conflict in Yemen, a senior UN official said.

The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Lise Grande, warned at the end of a high-level meeting held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that ten million more Yemenis will face pre-famine conditions by the end of this year if the status quo does not change.

She explained that three quarters of Yemen’s population need some form of protection and assistance.

For his part, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, said the humanitarian situation in Yemen has reached extremely dangerous levels. “I will ask you for resources to cover our humanitarian operations, so that the suffering of the Yemeni people will not continue,” he said.

The United Nations has launched an appeal to donor countries and institutions to increase financial support to cover what it has termed the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

]]>http://ciiradio.com/2018/09/26/one-child-dies-every-10-minutes-in-yemen-warns-un/feed/0Save the children warns that a million more children face famine in Yemenhttp://ciiradio.com/2018/09/19/save-the-children-warns-that-a-million-more-children-face-famine-in-yemen/
http://ciiradio.com/2018/09/19/save-the-children-warns-that-a-million-more-children-face-famine-in-yemen/#respondWed, 19 Sep 2018 09:38:59 +0000http://ciiradio.com/?p=1497619 September 2018|09 Muharram 1440|Middle East Monitor A further one million children are at risk of famine in Yemen, Save the Children has warned. Hundreds of thousands of Yemeni children could die if renewed attacks damage or temporarily close the key port of Hodeidah, Save the Children said on Wednesday after heavy fighting in the […]

A further one million children are at risk of famine in Yemen, Save the Children has warned.

Hundreds of thousands of Yemeni children could die if renewed attacks damage or temporarily close the key port of Hodeidah, Save the Children said on Wednesday after heavy fighting in the area resumed, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reports.

A new report by the charity said families were already struggling to afford food and transportation to health facilities as prices soared, and any further disruption could put another million children at risk of famine.

“Even the smallest disruption to food, fuel and aid supplies through its vital port could mean death for hundreds of thousands of malnourished children unable to get the food they need to stay alive,” said Yemen representative Tamer Kirolos.

Hodeidah is the main port of the impoverished Arab country, where around 8.4 million people are believed to be on the verge of starvation, and a lifeline for millions.

A Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi rebel group that controls the port has intensified its air campaign and resumed an offensive to capture it after peace talks collapsed earlier this month.

“This war risks killing an entire generation of Yemen’s children who face multiple threats, from bombs to hunger to preventable disease – what kind of Yemen will there be?” said Kirolos.

More than 28,000 people have been killed or wounded during the war, and 3 million have been uprooted, according to UN officials. Thousands more have died from malnutrition, disease and poor health.

Save the Children said a million more children in Yemen now risked falling into famine, taking the total number to 5.2 million.

Severely malnourished children are 12 times more likely to die from preventable diseases like pneumonia, measles, cholera or diphtheria, Kirolos said.

“(Children) are not getting enough to eat, they are being displaced, families can’t afford to go to health facilities – they are losing their lives because of these attacks,” Kirolos told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Sanaa.

The Norwegian Refugee Council has warned that more people will be killed by economic problems than by bombs and guns after food prices doubled in some parts of the country this month.

Stephen Anderson, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) country director in Yemen, said the “deteriorating” security situation in Hodeidah threatened continued humanitarian assistance.

“WFP fears that the humanitarian situation will only continue to worsen, pushing families, and children into an increasingly desperate situation, which is not acceptable in the 21st century,” he said if there is no end to the conflict.

]]>http://ciiradio.com/2018/09/19/save-the-children-warns-that-a-million-more-children-face-famine-in-yemen/feed/0Yemen on the brink of famine after port offensive, aid groups warnhttp://ciiradio.com/2018/07/24/yemen-on-the-brink-of-famine-after-port-offensive-aid-groups-warn/
http://ciiradio.com/2018/07/24/yemen-on-the-brink-of-famine-after-port-offensive-aid-groups-warn/#respondTue, 24 Jul 2018 11:58:57 +0000http://ciiradio.com/?p=1384024 July 2018|10 Dhul Qa’dha 1439|Middle east monitor Yemen is close to famine after a 25-percent increase in levels of severe hunger this year and an offensive on the main port city of Hodeida, a lifeline for millions, humanitarian organisations warned on Monday. The Thomson Reuters Foundation reports, thousands more people have been displaced by […]

Yemen is close to famine after a 25-percent increase in levels of severe hunger this year and an offensive on the main port city of Hodeida, a lifeline for millions, humanitarian organisations warned on Monday.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation reports, thousands more people have been displaced by the conflict and many are having to skip meals and beg on the streets, they said, with an estimated 8.4 million people already on the verge of starvation.

“We perceive the country to be sitting on a knife edge in terms of famine – it could tip at any time really,” Suze van Meegen, spokeswoman for the Norwegian Refugee Council, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from the capital, Sanaa.

“The desperation we are seeing is becoming greater – more people are begging in the streets.”

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said four in every 10 children under five were now acutely malnourished, and put the number of people displaced since the Hodeida offensive began at 200,000.

“Averting famine in Yemen will be contingent on the ability of WFP and other humanity agencies to reach the populations in need to sustain humanitarian assistance,” said Stephen Anderson, Yemen country director for the WFP, by phone from Sanaa.

The United Nations said last year there were “famine-like” conditions in parts of Yemen, but that not all the criteria had been met.

For famine to be declared, more than 20 percent of the population must be unable to feed themselves, with 30 percent or more of children under five suffering acute malnutrition and doubling in the rate of mortality, the UN said at the time.

The offensive on Hodeidah was led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and launched the largest battle in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people.

The war has caused the world’s most urgent humanitarian crisis, with 22 million Yemenis dependent on aid.

Van Meegen said it was calm in Hodeidah city, but heavy fighting south of the city was causing civilian deaths and driving people from their homes.

The Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthi movement had previously closed the port, the country’s main entry point for food, fuel and humanitarian supplies.

In June, WFP was able to bring in three ships containing enough food for six million people for one month.

Anderson said the prospect of the ports closing again was a “major concern”.

]]>http://ciiradio.com/2018/07/24/yemen-on-the-brink-of-famine-after-port-offensive-aid-groups-warn/feed/0Scores of children in Yemen on the verge of death due to faminehttp://ciiradio.com/2018/03/07/scores-of-children-in-yemen-on-the-verge-of-death-due-to-famine/
http://ciiradio.com/2018/03/07/scores-of-children-in-yemen-on-the-verge-of-death-due-to-famine/#respondWed, 07 Mar 2018 11:01:24 +0000http://ciiradio.com/?p=11259Cii Radio| Ayesha Ismail| 07 March 2018| 19 Jumadul Ukhra 1439 Dozens of children trapped in the Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen are on the verge of death due to famine. Heartbreaking pictures emerged of the suffering children looking frail and weak on various social media platforms. Despite the criticalness of the situation, the Houthis continue […]

Dozens of children trapped in the Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen are on the verge of death due to famine.

Heartbreaking pictures emerged of the suffering children looking frail and weak on various social media platforms.

Despite the criticalness of the situation, the Houthis continue to jeopardize humanitarian aid attempts.

Thousands of families are unable to provide basics such as bread and milk for their children.

Critical cases
According to humanitarian activists, malnutrition has spread like wildfire among children in seized areas, especially in the Haffash directorate in al-Mehweet governorate north of Yemen.

Dozens of children will die if immediate action is not taken, they added. Other diseases have also begun to emerge among the population.

The Houthi militia have been tampering with available humanitarian aid, selling it on the black market and distributing the products among themselves, said the activists.

The activists continued to call on international humanitarian organizations to save the children.

]]>http://ciiradio.com/2018/03/07/scores-of-children-in-yemen-on-the-verge-of-death-due-to-famine/feed/0Yemen’s children face famine amid ‘worst diphtheria outbreak’http://ciiradio.com/2018/01/22/yemens-children-face-famine-amid-worst-diphtheria-outbreak/
http://ciiradio.com/2018/01/22/yemens-children-face-famine-amid-worst-diphtheria-outbreak/#respondMon, 22 Jan 2018 19:37:45 +0000http://ciiradio.com/?p=10335Cii Radio| Ayesha Ismail| 22 January 2018| 04 Jumadul Ula 1439 Deaths caused by diphtheria, a serious bacterial infection, are “likely to rise” in Yemen if a blockade imposed by a Saudi-led military coalition is not lifted, a major international charity has warned. Save the Children said in a statement on Sunday that minors in […]

Deaths caused by diphtheria, a serious bacterial infection, are “likely to rise” in Yemen if a blockade imposed by a Saudi-led military coalition is not lifted, a major international charity has warned.

Save the Children said in a statement on Sunday that minors in the war-torn country were the most affected in what it called “the worst diphtheria outbreak for a generation”.

Diphtheria is a contagious infection that targets the body’s respiratory system. Though preventable by vaccines, it can lead to breathing problems, heart failure and death.

Since August, the aid organisation said it recorded at least 52 deaths from the disease, the majority of which were children under the age of 15.

Some 716 others were infected during the same time period.

“There’s so little help right now that families are carrying their children for hundreds of miles to get to us,” Mariam Aldogani, the group’s field coordinator in the port city of Hudaida, said.

“But they’re arriving too late and infecting people on the way.”

According to Save the Children, the outbreak has hit the western provinces of Ibb and Hudaida the hardest.

Apart from severe food and fuel shortages, Yemen’s population is already facing an ongoing widespread cholera epidemic, described as the world’s worst, and an outbreak of acute diarrhoea.

The United Nations has said that spread of disease is “man-made”, referring to the war between Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led coalition that is fighting them.

People in the port city of Hodeidah, situated on the Red Sea, are resorting to rummaging through rubbish to find food.

UN aid agencies are calling for the city’s port to stay open to allow aid to continue.

The Saudi-led coalition had eased a three-week blockade, but the deadline has now expired.

The fate of millions of Yemenis facing famine rests with the coalition.

Yemen has been torn apart by conflict since 2014, when Houthi rebels, allied with troops loyal to the late President Ali Abdullah Saleh, captured large expanses of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.

Saudi Arabia launched a massive aerial campaign against the rebels in March 2015, aimed at restoring the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The Saudi-led coalition closed air, land and sea access to the Arabian peninsula country for all humanitarian workers and organisations on November 6, saying the blockade would stop arms from reaching Houthi rebels.

The blockade was eased weeks later, but many warned that the move did not go far enough, including aid and human rights groups who warned that the spectre of mass famine would continue to loom over the impoverished country

The UN says that more than 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has also displaced more than three million.

]]>http://ciiradio.com/2018/01/22/yemens-children-face-famine-amid-worst-diphtheria-outbreak/feed/0Yemeni children ‘born into war’ face the possibility of faminehttp://ciiradio.com/2018/01/17/yemeni-children-born-into-war-face-the-possibility-of-famine/
http://ciiradio.com/2018/01/17/yemeni-children-born-into-war-face-the-possibility-of-famine/#respondWed, 17 Jan 2018 13:17:12 +0000http://ciiradio.com/?p=10272Cii Radio| Ayesha Ismail| 17 January 2018| 29 Rabi ul Aakhir 1439 More than three million children have been born in Yemen since the escalation in violence in March 2015, UN Children’s Fund, and UNICEF, said on Tuesday. A UNICEF report entitled “Born into War” offers a detailed look on how Yemeni children have been […]

More than three million children have been born in Yemen since the escalation in violence in March 2015, UN Children’s Fund, and UNICEF, said on Tuesday.

A UNICEF report entitled “Born into War” offers a detailed look on how Yemeni children have been scarred by years of violence, displacement, disease, poverty, undernutrition and a lack of access to basic services including water, health care and education.

“More than 5,000 children have been killed or injured in the violence — an average of five children every day since March 2015,” the report said, adding that more than 11 million children needed urgent humanitarian assistance — more than half of the country’s child population — as they did not have access to safe drinking water or adequate sanitation.

“An estimated 1.8 million children are acutely malnourished, including nearly 400,000 severely acutely malnourished children who are fighting for their lives,” the report said.

The report also touched on the problem of widespread disease. “Suspected cholera and acute watery diarrhea have affected over 1 million people, with children under 5 years old accounting for a quarter of all cases,” it said.

Noting that nearly two million children were out of school, the report said a total of 256 schools were reported “totally destroyed” as of the end of September 2017, while 150 schools were occupied by displaced people, and 23 of them by armed groups.

“Three-quarters of all girls are married before the age of 18,” the report also added.

UNICEF’s Yemen Representative Meritxell Relano noted that an entire generation of children in Yemen was growing up knowing nothing but violence.

“Children in Yemen are suffering the devastating consequences of a war that is not of their making,” she said.

UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) also said on Tuesday that 22.2 million Yemenis were in need of humanitarian assistance with nearly 18 million not knowing where their next meal would come from.

“More than eight million of them are extremely vulnerable and entirely dependent on external food assistance,” WFP warned.

On the brink of famine
In the worst-case scenario, the war-torn nation “faces a risk of famine” if there is prolonged and significant disruption to imports through its two Red Sea ports, said a specialist US-based agency.

More people are predicted to go hungry in July 2018 than in the same month last year, added the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its latest analysis, which focuses on projected food needs for July.

A Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthi movement had closed key ports, Hodeidah, which is the country’s main entry point for food and humanitarian supplies, and Saleef, in early November.

The US-backed coalition accuses Iran of sending weapons to its Houthi allies through Hodeidah. More than 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Yemen, a nation of 28 million people, imports more than 85 per cent of its food and medicine.

The ports have temporarily re-opened for 30 days, and cranes arrived on Monday to help with the aid flow, but it’s unclear if they will stay that way, said Stephen Anderson, Yemen country director for the World Food Programme (WFP).

Disrupting humanitarian access would deepen what the United Nations already calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, said Rosanne Marchesich, a Rome-based emergency response team leader at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In 2017, 17 million Yemenis, or about two-thirds of the population, were considered hungry,with 6.8 million needing immediate, adequate and sustained food assistance, WFP said.

The numbers have gone up with 8.4 million now on the brink of famine, it added.

]]>http://ciiradio.com/2018/01/17/yemeni-children-born-into-war-face-the-possibility-of-famine/feed/0Dengue fever and malaria adds to Yemen’s woeshttp://ciiradio.com/2017/12/13/dengue-fever-and-malaria-adds-to-yemens-woes/
http://ciiradio.com/2017/12/13/dengue-fever-and-malaria-adds-to-yemens-woes/#respondWed, 13 Dec 2017 12:06:29 +0000http://ciiradio.com/?p=9687Cii Radio| Ayesha Ismail| 13 December 2017| 24 Rabi ul Awal 1439 A senior UN official has called for parties involved in the war in Yemen to allow “sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access” for the millions of Yemenis facing famine and battling disease. The situation is steadily deteriorating, with cases of malaria, dengue fever and […]

A senior UN official has called for parties involved in the war in Yemen to allow “sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access” for the millions of Yemenis facing famine and battling disease.

The situation is steadily deteriorating, with cases of malaria, dengue fever and diphtheria starting to appear in health centres around the country.

Aid workers say the continuing Saudi-led blockade, which began in October in response to a missile fired by the Houthis towards Riyadh, is limiting vital supplies of fuel, food and medicine, making treatment of the afflicted almost impossible.

“The lives of millions of people, including 8.4 million Yemenis who are a step away from famine, hinge on our ability to continue our operations and to provide health, safe water, shelter and nutrition support,” Jamie McGoldrick, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said in a statement on Monday.

The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced three million, according to the UN.